News: News app frequently shows an empty page after update to 15.0.6

[Moini]

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Explain the Problem

After the update from Nextcloud 19 (latest released version) with all
apps (including News) updated to their latest released version to 20.0.2
with News 15.0.6, it now sometimes happens that the news page is
completely empty (no sidebar, no content) after I load the page.

I then need to reload the page an additional 2 or 3 (usually, sometimes up to 7) times, and only then
the sidebar and (if available) the news list are filled with items.

I did not see any relevant errors in the console.

This never occurred before the mentioned update.

As it only happens sporadically, I have not been able to intentionally
reproduce it at all, so also cannot repro with browser addons disabled... (I usually have them on, but the relevant ones (NoScript, uBlock Origin) are not active for my personal Nextcloud.

Steps to Reproduce

Explain what you did to encounter the issue

This happens sporadically. I have not found a pattern to reproduce this yet.

Seems to be mostly after not looking at the page for some time. When it
works, then it works for the following reloads, too.

System Information

• News app version: 15.0.6
• Nextcloud version: 20.02
• Cron type: System cron (works)
• PHP version: 7.2.24-0ubuntu0.18.04.7
• Database and version: MariaDB 10.1.47
• Browser and version: Firefox 83.0
• Distribution and version: Ubuntu 18.04

Contents of nextcloud/data/nextcloud.log

Sorry, no. That's private. There were no error messages at all in the log. Just
tons of deprecation warnings.

I've looked through it, filtering for lines that:

• contain the word 'news'
• do not contain the word 'deprecated'
• do not contain the string 'new parser added'
• do not contain anything with 'SCSSCacher' (which is set for 5 minutes, but on the next page load, it's again set for 5 minutes, even if there have definitely not passed 5 minutes).

Command used:

grep news nextcloud.log | grep -v deprecated | grep -v 'new parser added' | grep -v 'SCSSCacher'

The only line that was left is that it added an item (a news article),
with no user or browser specified, I assume that was done by cron.

Contents of Browser Error Console

While there were lots
of messages, none appeared relevant to this problem:

(the warning about CSP also shows up when the page loads successfully)

If you have a hint about how to debug this for me, that would be cool.

[DudleyDursley]

The same thing happens to me but I never have to reload the page more than once and it usually happens after logging in.

[Grotax]

Yea we have seen this already a couple of times so far we have no idea why, as you noticed there is no hint why it's broken.
My first guess would be that the frontend is outdated and sooner or later it would break.

[bf8392]

I have the same issue... (NC 20.0.2)

[FadeFx]

I think there is a difference in browsers, i can hardly reproduce it (if at all) in firefox on android, not tested the desktop version of firefox

[Moini]

Additional data point: The API works properly, I don't have any issues in the Android app.

[kitzler-walli]

I have the same issues - I'm able to reproduce them every time as long as the developer tools of chrome are open. As soon as I close them the news appear after a few reloads.

[calvinrw]

The same thing is happening for me, and I can confirm every detail of this report, right down the sporadic nature of the issue. I typically have to refresh the page several times before the news reader app is shown. My setup is:

• News app version: 15.1.0
• Nextcloud version: 20.0.2
• Cron type: System cron
• PHP version: 7.4.13-1+0~20201130.33+debian10~1.gbpd59941
• Database and version: mysql 10.3.27
• Webserver: Apache 2.4.38-3+deb10u4
• Server operating system: Debian GNU/Linux 10.7
• Browsers tested: Firefox 83.0 on macOS 10.15.7 and Firefox 82.0.3 on Ubuntu 20.04.

I'm not having any issues whatsoever with the News app for Android.

[SMillerDev]

We don't actually have issues verifying the behavior. The issue is that nobody is going to fix it because there are no angular/vue.js developers working on the app.

[FadeFx]

Sounds like we gotta live with that issue for a while except someone learns to code and dives into that issue...

[Grotax]

We already have an open PR to rebuild the front-end based on a shared library maintained by nextcloud. But the person working on it is also a student and currently has to work on those projects. So we have to wait, alternatively if someone has enough experience and time he/she could support the PR, take over some of the work.

The rebuild is based on vue.js and the nextcloud library for that.

[FadeFx]

Unfortunately the codefu power is very weak in me, so we need someone else to step in there

[powerpaul17]

I already offered to help in the PR but I got no clear response from him/her. I also don't want to interfere if someone is already working on it.

[SMillerDev]

I don't think anyone will mind if you offer some code.

You could check out the current code and make a pull request against that branch if you want to help. Or try and get the Vue component review, that is currently blocking, for nextcloud merged.

[Moini]

For anyone interested, would there be a link to the PR? (I'm not able to work on it, but I figure if someone wants to help, they'd benefit from knowing where...)

[FadeFx]

That is an easy find, thede are currently 9 pr on this project and this one is it:
https://github.com/nextcloud/news/pull/748

[Grotax]

The blocking PR was already merged, currently the only issue is that our PR has made no progress. And as far as I can see there is currently no work invested due to other tasks.

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs.

[Moini]

Further activity. The issue persists.

[teemue]

Still happening, 20.0.5

[SMillerDev]

Yes, nobody is working to fix it so the issue will remain for a while.

[Grotax]

Yea so this is an issue and I bet many of you would love to have a better web frontend but we can't change that the frontend hasn't received any major attention lately. If you feel like to step in, maybe just a little bit feel free to join https://github.com/nextcloud/news/pull/748 and create PRs against that branch. Don't be scared that maybe your code won't be accepted, it's normal to write code and throw it away later sometimes.

With that being said I don't see any reason to keep the discussion going, if you still feel like you need to express your feelings or thoughts feel free to use the discussions section of this repository.

[Moini]

Uhm, what? You close an issue because nobody is working on it? Or do you consider this a duplicate, then? It has become more severe lately, sometimes I need to reload 20 times in a row. I'd very much like this to be obvious, instead of hidden by closing the bug.

[FadeFx]

No, its been closed because it is superseded by pr #748

btw no change in behaviour for me, i have to refresh one or two times to make it load

[anoymouserver]

As @Grotax mentioned, we currently don't have the resources to actively develop the frontend, except for quick and easy bug fixes when we know what's going wrong.
Since there is already a draft PR for rewriting the frontend and the current maintainers don't know how to cause or fix this problem, there is nothing we can do at the moment except wait patiently for the new frontend.

We maintain this app in our spare time. Complaining about things will not speed things up, but can result in people not wanting to do it anymore.
If you want to help, you can join in yourself and troubleshoot the bug, or pay the current maintainers (or other) for doing so.

[SMillerDev]

Uhm, what? You close an issue because nobody is working on it?

Because nobody is working on it and nobody is planning on working (specifically) on it. The linked PR will likely fix the issue, but we're not keeping issues around unless someone is planning on working on it. It's demotivating and doesn't help anyone. If you want this fixed, hire a frontend developer to make a pull request for it.

[Moini]

That's quite an uncommon workflow - in other projects, bug reports are kept open until they're fixed (and not because they make someone feel uncomfortable). That's what I meant.

[calvinrw]

That's quite an uncommon workflow - in other projects, bug reports are kept open until they're fixed. That's what I meant.

I agree with this, but the point is that any further discussion here is frivolous. It's clear what the cause of this issue is, what it takes to fix it and the associated open PR, and why work isn't happening.

I am completely sympathetic to having to balance coursework and other projects, so I will wait patiently for a fix.

Until then, I've found that when this issue occurs and the News page comes up blank, clicking the News app's icon in Nextcloud's menu bar almost always causes it to be shown correctly on the next try. I can live with that.

[stavros-k]

The latest update (15.3.2) have made it more consistent. It know takes only 1 refresh to load properly!

[Moini]

Can't confirm that. Just tested, it took 6 times. But I also once had 27, so 6 is better than that...

[Moini]

(I suspect it could be caused by something simple like a timeout... My server is slow.)